Cover Image: The Last to Vanish

The Last to Vanish

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Member Reviews

I loved this book! It’s the first Megan Miranda one I’ve read and I couldn’t put it down. It kept me guessing up until the very end

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The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda takes place in a North Carolina town near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It is located where people like to hike and it can be dangerous, especially after dark. Cutter's Pass is the name of the town and it has become famous for people going to hike and never returning. Travelers have started coming to the town to ask questions and see the place where the disappearances occurred.

Abby Lovett is a young woman of 17 whose mother has died of cancer. She has never met her father and she is alone in the world. She is drawn to Cutter's Pass. The owner of an inn called the Passage gives her a job and treats her like her own child. Abby lives and works there for 10 years. When another woman goes missing, the town suffers her loss, even though they don't know her. That brings a reporter to stay at the inn. The reporter also goes missing, and Abby cannot let go of it. She digs and digs to try to find out what happened to all the missing.

This book draws the reader in and the characters respond to stressful situations we all hope we never need to understand. The area of the country where the book takes place is scenic and can be truly dangerous. It makes for a great mystery. I think a sequel may be in order.

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Slow. The whole book I was waiting for something to happen. Most of the story took place in the last 30 pages. The setting was great, I definitely felt like I was there, living on this town.

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Unfortunately, I could not get into this book and it was such a slow read for me. I found it to be redundant throughout the book and the ending wasn't worth the slow pace. I normally like her work so I was very excited for the advanced copy, and I'm still very grateful for it, but this was one I almost didn't finish. Thank you to the author, netgalley, and publisher for the chance to read and review early!

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher of this novel for the E-Arc copy. I am rating this book based on my own personal opinion and was not given anything in return. I am not leaving a entire review because I read so many at a time that I physically cannot right now.

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I received a free copy from NetGalley. Small town inn near the AT where people go missing and the locals won't talk about it. There is a lot going on in this novel, and not just the mystery of where all the bodies are hidden, the way it ties all together is very well done.

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I loved the setting of this one - a small town, Cutter's Pass, adjacent to the Appalachian Trail in the mountains of North Carolina, which is notorious for at least six missing hikers over the years. Protagonist Abby, works at an inn at the base of the mountains that has connections with several of the missing hikers. Abby recalls odd things about a couple of the hikers, but Celeste, the owner of the inn and a mother figure to Abby, has encouraged her to keep things to herself. When Trey, the brother of the last man to vanish shows up with hard questions, Abby finds herself wondering what she really knows about the people and the town she has adopted as her home.

There was a lot of detail about the town and the inn, but it never felt stilted or boring, as it was necessary for the atmosphere - the more details, the more eerie and dangerous it felt. I also loved Abby's character, who despite living in Cutter's Pass for the past ten years, is still considered an "outsider", and never quite feels as if she is accepted. There is also an intriguing cast of secondary characters, who all had suspicious actions and possible motives. The who, what, and why kept me guessing until the end - it wasn't easy to figure this one out at all. Just when I thought I had things figured out, I realized I was completely off base, which is where Miranda always shines!

Overall, it was so refreshing to find a unique plot that hasn't been rehashed a hundred different times. Combine that with a fantastic twist that I never saw coming, and it's an all-the-stars read in my book!

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The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda is a mystery about the disappearance of several individuals in Cutter Pass, North Carolina. Cutter Pass is the small, close-knit town in the mountains, near the Appalachian trails, where Abby Lovett has been managing a resort called The Passage Inn for ten years. The last person to disappear was staying at the Inn; Landon West is a reporter investigating the previous disappearance of individuals. The unthinkable happens when Landon disappears, and his brother Trey West shows up looking for clues about Landon's disappearance. Abby begins to help Trey and soon realizes that the town has many secrets, and she doesn't know who to trust. There were so many twists and turns in this story that it kept me guessing until the end.
I look forward to Megan Miranda's next book. Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC.

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People keep vanishing from a small town, sounds thrilling! In execution it is more of a slow burn. There is definitely enough happening in the plot to keep you reading, but it is lacking that page turner aspect. This is worth a read for fans of Megan Miranda, but if you are looking to make your heart race this is not a good pick for you.

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The Last to Vanish pulled me in effortlessly and I was quickly immersed into the story. An addicting mystery thriller that kept me guessing to the end with a satisfying conclusion. Megan Miranda delivers a well-constructed story set in a secluded town in the Carolina mountains near the Appalachian trail with robust characters.

ARC was provided by Scribner via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Expected Pub Date: 26 July 2022

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A journalist arrives in a small, touristy North Carolina town of Cutter's Pass to investigate a string of disappearances, then he himself disappears. As the story opens, the journalist's brother arrives at The Passage Inn, where Abby is the manager. Abby is our narrator and central character, who arrived in town 10 years ago, just after the first disappearance, an 18 year old unsure of herself and her direction in life. After the inn's owner, Celeste, gave her the job, Abby has grown more confident but is keenly aware that she is still an outsider in the town. As the story develops, the reader becomes aware that something is a bit off with Abby's backstory. But something is definitely off about the town, with its cadre of guarded, secretive, resentful insiders. When Abby stumbles across disturbing pieces of evidence related to the disappearances, she has to question what she thought she knew about the inn, the town, and everyone she knows.

Miranda effectively tells the story through flashbacks to the disappearances that rocked Cutter's Pass, which occurred over a span of 25 years, and present-day scenes filled with increasing tension and dread as Abby comes closer to the truth. Neither she nor the reader will expect the shocking revelations to the town's secrets, though. Abby, however, is the only really sympathetic character, at least until the end, as most of the other characters exist mainly to add to her sense of fear and isolation. A definite page-turner, though.

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Great new read by Miranda. I always enjoy her books, and this was no exception. My only issue is when authors intentionally keep a secret from the reader in this way....when we have been given the POV of the protagonist the whole time and find out something that definitely would have come up in her thoughts, which we are privy to. But still a great read and the secret/twist doesn't impact the plot or events really.

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Overall, I loved the story and the twist. My only issue was with the length - I feel like 50-75 pages could have been cut and we would still understand that Abby feels like an outsider to a very tight-knit town. Not bad, but it's not a book that I would recommend to friends who are into the crime genre.

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I have several of Megan Miranda's books in my middle school library, and they are always checked out. I wanted to read her newest one to see if it would be a good purchase for my students. While I got very caught up in this twisty mystery, I feel like it is more of an adult novel since the main character is an adult. That's the only reason I won't buy it for my library. The story, however, really had me fooled! I'm usually very good at figuring out mysteries, but that wasn't the case with this one. Great story!

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This wasn't my favorite of hers but it definitely had moments where I gasped. It got creepy for sure. But the ending was disappointing.

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Edge of my seat twists and turns. A small town with a mysterious history - who is telling the truth and who is keeping secrets? Great read!

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Set in the beautiful Appalachian countryside, The Last to Vanish is a wonderful mystery by Megan Miranda.

Abby still feels like an outsider even after years of living in Cutter's Pass; she manages an inn where people mysteriously began to disappear. When the brother of one of the vanished shows up to investigate the disappearances, Abby's hackles rise and she becomes embroiled even further in the investigation. She wants to protect the image of her inn, but she also wants to know what happened.

With a host of equally suspicious characters, it isn't easy to figure this one out right away and this is one area where Miranda always shines.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one by Megan Miranda and can't wait for her next! Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

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The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda kept me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. What seems like several unrelated disappearances starts to become connected as the author reveals more and more layers of the story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

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Another good book by Miranda! This one had a great story line with a twist at the end! The only downside was that it felt like it was dragging for the last 4th of the book. I wanted to keep reading to figure out who did it, but it felt like it was taking forever.

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I thought The Last to Vanish was a bit boring. Nothing much happens in the beginning of the book- it is all about the landscape and building up the atmosphere in the secretive mountain town. There were a lot of descriptive passages telling us about the inn, the mountain, the town, but not a lot of action. It made it hard for me to care about any of the characters. The book picks up in the last half though and is a real page turner by the end so I guess it all evens out.

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